BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 
•> 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


THE 


PALEOLITHIC    IMPLEMENTS 


OF  THJ-; 


VALLEY  OF  THE  DELAWARE, 


I.  Historical  sketch  of  their  discovery.     By  0.  C.  Abbott,  p.  124. 

II.  Their  comparison  with  palaeolithic  implements  from  Europe.     By  II. 

W.  Haynes,  p.  132. 

III.  On  the  age  of  the  Trenton  gravel.     By  G.  F.  Wright,  p.  137. 

IV.  Statement  relating-  to  the  finding  of  an  implement  in  the   gravel. 

By  Lncien  Carr,  p.  145. 

V.  On   the    lithological    character    of    ihtj    implements.       By    M.    E. 

Wadsworth,  p.  14G. 

VI.  Concluding  remarks.     By  F.  W.  Putnam,  p.  147. 


OF    NATURAL    HISTORY, 

JANUARY    19,    1 88 1. 


Reprinted  IVom  the  I'uoCKKDi.MiS  OF  TILK  SOCIKTY,  VOL.  XXI.  for  the  Peubo<ly 
inn  of  Ain;jri'';in  A  iv.li  ecology  jnul  Ktiinolou'v. 


CAMBRIDGE  : 

1881. 


IS  ISO 8 

•ANCH6FT  LIBRARY 

[From  the  Proceedings  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History, 
Vol.  XXI,  January  19, 1881.] 


AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  THE  DISCOVERIES  OF 
PALAEOLITHIC  IMPLEMENTS  IN  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE 
DELAWARE  RIVER. 

BY    C.    C.    ABBOTT,    M.D. 

In  March,  1872,  I  published  a  brief  notice  —  in  the  American 
Naturalist  —  of  the  various  patterns  of  stone  implements  found 
in  New  Jersey,  and  therein  described  certain  rude  implements 
that  I  had  found  associated  with  the  ordinary  forms  of  flint 
arrowheads  and  other  relics  of  the  Indians;  and  I  then  remarked 
that  these  rude  and  elaborate  forms,  although  associated,  appeared 
to  indicate  that  the  Indian,  while  an  occupant  of  our  Atlantic  sea 
board,  had  passed  "from  a  palaeolithic  to  a  neolithic"  condition  ; 
and  also  called  attention  to  the  marked  similarity  between  these 
surface-found  rude  implements,  and  the  palaeolithic  implements 
found  in  the  river  valleys  of  England  and  France. 

This  similarity  was  also  remarked  by  the  late  Professor  Wyman, 
to  whom  I  had  forwarded  specimens.  He  says,  in  the  Fifth  Annual 


1881.]  •  125  [Abbott. 

Report  of  the  Peabody  Museum,  that  "  they  closely  resemble  the 
celts  of  the  drift  period  of  Europe,  especially  those  found  at  St. 
Acheul,  two  or  three  of  which,  except  for  their  material,  could 
hardly  be  distinguished  from  them." 

In  April,  1873  —  also  in  the  American  Naturalist  —  I  again 
called  attention  to  these  rude  implements,  and  while  realizing  that 
they  were  certainly  older,  did  not  ascribe  to  them  other  than  an 
Indian  origin,  but  did  see  in  them,  as  I  believed,  evidence  that  the 
Indian  was  in  a  palaeolithic  stage  of  culture  when  he  reached  our 
shores ;  thus  classing  these  objects  with  the  ordinary  relics  of  the 
surface. 

At  this  time,  also,  I  gave  a  detailed  description  of  three  speci 
mens  of  chipped  pebbles,  which  had  been  picked  up,  at  different 
times,  while  in  search  of  mineralogical  specimens;  for  at  that 
time,  I  never  imagined  that  any  traces  of  Man  would  occur  at 
other  than  unimportant  depths  from  the  surface.  '  One  of  these 
chipped  pebbles  was  found  at  a  depth  of  sixteen  feet;  another  four 
feet  from  the  surface.  As  it  did  not  appear  possible  for  these  to 
have  reached  these  depths  by  natural  means,  I  was  led  to  remark 
that  these  were  even  older  than  surface-found  rude  implements, 
and  that  "we  must  admit  the  antiquity  of  American  man  to  be 
greater  than  the  advent  of  the  so-called  •  Indian  ;  i.  e.,  supposing 
the  latter  to  be  a  comparatively  recent  comer  to  the  Atlantic 
coast." 

The  discovery  of  these  first  suggested  to  me  that  there  might 
be  a  commingling  of  two  classes  of  stone  implements  upon  the 
surface,  which  had  diverse  origins,  and  this  came  the  more  forci 
bly  to  my  mind,  as  I  had  already  noticed  and  remarked,  that  in 
the  gravel  that  has  only  the  cultivated  soil  above  it  very 
many  of  the  rude  implements  have  occurred — indeed  the  great 
majority  had  been  found  in  the  loose  gravels,  wherever  exposed. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen,  that  from  the  first,  while  the  character  of 
these  implements  was  recognized,  their  whole  significance  had 
not  been,  except  in  the  case  of  two  specimens  (the  third  prob 
ably  being  a  natural  form),  and  these  were  considered  at  the  time 
as  apparently  indicative  of  what  has  since  been  demonstrated. 

In  January,  1877,  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Smithsonian  Insti 
tution  for  1875  was  published.  This  contained  a  more  extensive 


Abbott.]  1 26  [Jnnnnry  19, 

notice,  written  by  me,  in  1872,  of  the  stone  implements  of  New 
Jersey,  and  I  there  devoted  a  chapter  to  the  consideration  of  rude 
stone  implements,  where  I  maintained  that  they  were  older  than 
jasper  and  quartz  arrowheads.  One  of  these  rude  forms  I  referred 
m  "a  fair  representative  of  the  implements  met  with  .... 
in  the  gravelly  bluff  or  bank  of  the  Delaware  River,  south 
of  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  and  occasionally  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground  in  the  same  neighborhood" 

Thus  while  pursuing  my  collecting  of  Indian  relics,  it  was  ^r.  du 
ally  forced  upon  my  mind  that  these  rude  implements  were  more 
intimately  associated  with  tlie  gravel  than  with  the  surface  of  the 
ground  and  the  relics  of  the  Indians  found  upon  it. 

Acting  upon  this,  I  continued  for  two  years  to  most  carefully 
examine  both  the  surface  of  our  fields  and  every  exposure  of  the 
underlying  gravels;  and  in  June,  1876,  after  having  found  several 
chipped  implements  in  situ,  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  Dela 
ware  river,  "now  occupying  a  comparatively  small  and  shallow 
channel,  once  flowed  at  an  elevation  of  nearly  fifty  feet  above  its 
present  level ;  and  it  was  when  such  a  mighty  stream  as  this,  that 
man  first  gazed  upon  its  waters  and  lost  those  rude  weapons  in  its 
swift  current,  that  now  in  the  beds  of  gravel  which  its  floods 
have  deposited,  are  alike'  the  puzzle  and  delight  of  the  archaeolo 
gist.  Had  these  first  comers,  like  the  troglodytes  of  France, 
had  convenient  caves  to  shelter  them,  doubtless  we  would  have 
their  better  wrought  implements  of  bone  to  tell  more  surely  the 
story  of  their  ancient  sojourn  here ;  but  wanting  them,  their 
history  is  not  altogether  lost,  and  in  the  rude  weapons,  now  deep 
down  beneath  the  grassy  sod  and  flower-decked  river  bank,  we 
Irani,  at  least,  the  fact  of  the  presence,  in  the  distant  past,  of  an 
earlier  people  than  the  Indian/" 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  I  have  been  fairly  cautious  in  my 
statements,  and  slow  in  reaching  any  conclusions  with  reference 
to  these  implements  which  separated  them  from  ordinary  Indian 
relics,  the  identity  of  which  cannot,  of  course,  be  questioned. 

Furthermore,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  there  should  not  have 
l»een  that  succession  of  stages  of  culture,  known  as  pcdaeolit/iic 
and  neolithic,  in  North  America,  as  has  been  so  clearly  shown  as 
true  of  Europe.  Had  the  Delaware  river  been  a  European 


1881.]  127  [Abbott. 

stream,  the  implements  found  in  its  valley  would  have  been  ac 
cepted  at  once  as  evidence  of  the  so-called  palaeolithic  man; 
but  being  in  another  continent,  and  one  supposedly  beyond  the 
reach  of  this  early  man,  as  theoretical  ethnologists  have  considered 
him,  my  claims  that  I  had  discovered  in  America  traces  of  this 
primitive  chipper  of  pebbles,  have  been  strenuously  denied,  especially 
by  a  few,  who  have  never  visited  the  locality  or  seen  a  specimen 
of  chipped  implement  taken  therefrom,  as  altogether  unwarranted 
by  the  facts. 

In  this  matter  there  has  been,  as  rny  several  publications  show, 
no  attempt  to  make  the  facts  conform  to  a  pre-conceived  theory. 
The  pre-conception,  on  the  contrary,  being  that  all  traces  of  man 
in  America  were  to  be  referred  to  the  neolithic  Indian,  and  the 
many  facts  in  the  case,  finally  forced  me  to  relinquish  it. 

In  September,  1876,  Mr.  Putnam,  the  Curator  of  the  Peabody 
Museum  of  Archaeology  at  Cambridge,  Mass.,  favored  me  with  a 
visit,  ;md  together  we  carefully  examined  the  river  bluff  below 
Trenton,  ?md  succeeded  in  finding  two  specimens  in  situ,  such  as  I 
had  previously  described  in  the  American  Naturalist,  and  at  his  re 
quest  I  continued  my  examinationh  of  these  gravels,  acting  under 
an  appropriation  made  by  the  Peabody  Museum  for  this  purpose; 
and,  in  November  of  the  same  year,  submitted  to  him  a  report  On 
the  Discovery  of  Supposed  Palaeolithic  Implements  from  the 
Glacial  drift  in  the  Valley  of  the  Delaware  JRiver,  near  Trenton, 
New  Jersey.  Still  realizing  how  all  important  it  was  in  this  matter 
to  make  haste  slowly,  I  purposely  referred  to  these  chipped  stones 
as  supposed  palaeolithic  implements,  and  gave,  in  detail,  my  rea 
sons  for  thus  considering  them. 

Referring  to  this  report  Mr.  Putnam  remarked,  in  his  annual 
report  to  the  trustees  of  the  Peabody  Museum,  that  "from  a  visit 
to  the  locality  with  Dr.  Abbott,  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  the 
general  conclusion  he  has  reached  in  regard  to  the  existence  of 
man  in  glacial  times  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America." 

Before  this  report  was  published  these  gravel  deposits  were 
visited  by  Prof.  N.  S.  Shaler,  who  was  fortunate  enough  to  find  a 
characteristic  specimen,  bnt  not  in  situ.  I  also  found  one^ 
likewise  in  the  talus.  Of  these  specimens,  Professor  Shaler  says, 
"Although  the  whole  face  of  the  escarpment  is  in  motion,  creep- 


Abbott.)  128  [Jannnry  1!', 

in-jT  slowly  under  the  influence  of  frost  and  gravity  towards  its 
base,  it  was  difficult  to  believe  that  these  specimens,  found  about 
twelve  feet  below  the  top  of  the  bank,  had  travelled  down  from 
the  superficial  soil." 

Continuing  my  own  researches,  in  1877,  I  made  a  second  report 
on  the  occurrence  of  these  implements,  and  re-affirmed  my  convic 
tion  that  in  the  specimens  of  artificially  chipped  pebbles,  from 
these  gravel  deposits,  we  have  evidence  of  man's  presence  at  an 
earlier  date  than  the  supposed  advent  of  the  Red  Indian;  and 
referred  them  geologically  to  the  Glacial  epoch,  in  accordance 
with  the  writings  of  Professor  Cook,  our  State  Geologist,  who  had 
pronounced  these  gravels  as  of  glacial  origin. 

This,  briefly,  is  the  history  of  my  own  labors  in  this  field. 

As  the  result,  in  material  gathered,  there  are  now  in  the 
Peabody  Museum  about  four  hundred  specimens,  of  which  about 
sixty  have  been  taken  from  recorded  depths ;  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  from  the  talus,  at  the  bluff  facing  the  river,  and  the 
remainder  from  the  surface  or  derived  from  collectors  who  did 
not  record  the  positions  or  circumstances  under  which  they  were 
found.  While  these  figures  are  approximative  only  they  do  not 
materially  vary  from  the  notes  that  I  have  taken,  which,  generally 
being  packed  away  with  the  specimens,  I  have  not  the  time  to 
carefully  go  over  and  repeat  to  you  verbatim. 

Somewhat  similar  conditions  occur  also  in  other  river  valle\s 
as  the  Schuylkill  and  Susquehanna,  in  Pennsylvania,  and  in  the 
valley  of  the  Potomac,  near  Washington.  The  geological  struc 
tures  of  these  valleys,  with  rock  formations  coming  near  to  or 
constituting  the  surface,  not  improbably  explains  much  of  this 
difference  as  compared  with  the  Delaware  valley,  wherein,  south 
of  Trenton,  N.  J.,  there  is  no  living  rock  in  place  except  at  ^reat 
depths. 

In  the  valleys  of  the  Schuylkill  and  Potomac,  Mr.  Berlin,  of 
KYadhiu,,  I 'a.,  and  Dr.  Hoffman,  of  Washington,  I ).  ('.,  have  found 
implements  of  palaeolithic  character  under  circumstances  point 
ing  to  a  remote-  antiquity, although  none  have  occurred  at  as  ^rcat 
depths  as  at  Trenton,  N.  J. 

Prof.  Ilaldeman  also  found  rude  implements  iu  the  Susque 
hanna  valley,  which,  as  his  own  statement  regarding  them  clearly 


1881.]  129  [Abbott. 

shows,  were,  in  all  probability  of  like  age  and  origin  as  those 
found  in  the  valley  of  the  Delaware. 

The  published  account  of  Mr.  Berlin's  "  finds "  is  in  the  first 
volume  of  the  American  Naturalist ;  that  of  Dr.  Hoffman  in  the 
thirteenth  volume  of  the  American  Naturalist,  and  that  of  Dr. 
Haldeman  in  the  Peabody  Museum  Reports,  Vol.  II,  p.  255. 

Col.  C.  C.  Jones,  Jr.,  in  his  instructive  volume  on  the  Antiqui 
ties  of  the  Southern  Indians,  published  in  1873,  records  the 
discovery  of  drift  implements  of  precisely  the  same  type  and 
under  similar  conditions  as  those  found  in  the  valley  of  the  Dela 
ware  River.  (Chap,  xii,  p.  292,  pi.  xvi,  fig.  10.) 

Furthermore,  I  desire  now  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
archaeological  interest  centering  in  these  gravels,  does  not  rest 
solely  on  my  own  labors.  Others  have  examined  them  carefully, 
and  have  published,  or  will  do  so,  the  results  of  their  visits  to  the 
locality. 

In  October,  1877,  the  late  Thomas  Belt  visited  the  locality,  and 
gathered  specimens  therefrom.  His  account  of  his  visit  will  be 
found  in  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  Science,  London,  for  January, 
1878,  p.  55. 

In  September,  1878,  Prof.  J.  D.  Whitney  and  Mr.  Carr,  of  the 
Peabody  Museum,  visited  the  locality,  and  of  this  visit  Mr.  Carr 
has  stated,  in  the  Twelfth  Annual  Report  of  the  Museum,  "  in 
September  last,  in  company  with  Prof.  J.  D.  Whitney  of  Harvard 
College,  I  visited  Trenton,  and  we  were  fortunate  enough  to  find 
several  of  these  implements  in  place.  Professor  Whitney  has  no 
doubt  as  to  the  antiquity  of  the  drift,  and  we  are  both  in  full 
accord  with  Dr.  Abbott  as  to  the  artificial  character  of  many  of 
these  implements." 

In  June,  1879,  and  again,  in  June,  1880,  Mr.  Putnam  visited 
Trenton,  and  he  also  has  gathered  excellent  specimens  from  the 
undisturbed  gravels,  at  various  depths.  As  both  he  and  Mr.  Carr 
are  present,  they  will  refer  to  these  themselves. 

Lastly,  in  November,  1880,  Prof.  W.  Boyd  Dawkins,  Prof. 
Henry  W.  Haynes,  Rev.  G.  Fred.  Wright,  and  Henry  Carvill 
Lewis  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Pennsylvania,  gave  these 
gravels  a  critical  examination.  The  results  in  part  of  this  visit 
will  be  given  this  evening  by  two  of  these  gentlemen,  and  it 

PROCEEDINGS  B.   S.  N.    H.  VOL.  XXI.  9  NOVEMBER,   1881. 


Abbott.]  180  [January  19, 

remains  for  me  only  to  briefly  call  attention  to  one  or  two  points 
that  may  not  In-  touched  upon  by  those  who  will  further  discuss 
the  significance  of  these  chipped  implements. 

In  the  spring  of  1877,  Mr.  Henry  C.  Lewis  was  detailed  by  tin- 
State  Geologist  of  Pennsylvania  to  critically  examine  and  map 
out  the  various  gravels  in  the  neighborhood  of  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
The  result  of  his  studies  showed  that  these  several  gravel  beds 
were  to  be  referred  to  different  geological  eras,  as  the  Bryn  JVIawr 
gravel  (Upper  Tertiary),  Glassboro  gravel  (Pliocene),  Phila 
delphia  brick  clay  (containing  boulders),  the  Trenton  gravel,  and 
the  recent  Alluvium;  the  oldest  being  that  first  named,  and 
coming  down  to  the  present  in  the  order  named ;  and  further 
showed  that  the  "yellow  gravel"  (a  marine  gravel),  which  forms 
the  boundaries  of  the  newer  Trenton  gravels,  was  high  and  dry 
during  the  deposition  of  the  circumscribed  Trenton  gravel,  which 
is  purely  river  drift,  derived  from  the  terminal  moraine  lying  in 
the  upper  valley  of  the  Delaware,  and  extending  across  the  State. 
This  most  important  discovery  has  an  important  bearing  on  the 
age  of  the  palaeolithic  implements,  in  that,  he  shows,  that  there 
was  an  extensive  area  of  habitable  land  from  Trenton  southward 
during  the  close  of  the  glacial  period ;  and  which  Professor  Cook, 
the  State  geologist  of  New  Jersey,  has  asserted  in  his  latest  reports, 
to  have  been  submerged  during  this  same  period;  —  thus  demon 
strating  that  a  habitable  country  enclosed  or  bordered  the  latest 
in  time,  or  Trenton  gravels,  during  the  time  that  they  were  accu 
mulating —  and  further  showing,  beyond  question,  that  if  any 
where,  relics  of  man  are  to  be  found,  other  than  on  the  surface,  it 
would  be  in  this  Trenton  gravel.  Furthermore,  Mr.  Lewis  care 
fully  mapped  this  gravel,  and  practically  completed  his  labors 
before  he  was  aware  of  my  discoveries. 

THEN,  on  comparing  his  results  with  my  own,  he  found  that 
the  implements  I  had  collected,  in  situ,  were  gathered  only  from 
those  localities  where  this  Trenton,  or  newest  gravel,  occurs. 

Thus,  he,  from  a  geological  standpoint,  working  upward,  to  the 
present ;  and  I,  pushing  my  researches  backward,  from  the  his 
torical  point,  met  upon  common  ground,  and  each  in  total  igno 
rance  of  the  other's  labors,  until  our  respective  studies  brought  us 
face  t 


1881.]  131  [Abbott. 

What  further  evidence  of  the  substantial  correctness  of  my 
own  conclusions,  as  to  the  existence  of  palaeolithic  man,  can  be 
asked  ? 

To  the  subject  of  erosion  of  the  present  surface  of  the  locality, 
whereby  the  uplands  are  being  worn  away,  and  the  valleys  filled 
I  can  but  briefly  refer;  merely  calling  attention  to  the  fact 
that  by  this  agency  the  recent  Indian  relics  are  brought 
down,  as  it  were,  to  the  level  of  the  gravels ;  and  likewise,  the 
implement-bearing  gravels  are  brought  to  the  surface ;  thus  com 
mingling  objects,  in  many  cases,  that  originally  were  separated  by 
the  stratum  of  soil  that  capped  the  gravels  in  former  times.  To 
return  to  the  consideration  of  the  Trenton  gravel  I  will  say,  in 
conclusion,  that  it  is  clearly  evident,  as  Mr.  Wright  will  explain  to 
you,  that  the  accumulation  of  these  gravels  was  gradual,  and 
considerable  time  may  have  elapsed  from  the  date  of  the  first 
or  lowest  of  the  gravels,  before  additional  material  was  brought 
from  above.  Beyond  the  limits  of  these  gravels  stretched  in 
every  direction  a  vast  area  of  habitable  ground,  as  I  have  men 
tioned,  with  a  fauna  adapted  to  supply  man  with  every  need ; 
and  how  natural  that  the  primitive  American  should  have  gone 
to  these  then  accumulating  beds  of  shingle,  to  select  and  chip 
into  proper  shape,  the  pebbles,  that  thus  worked  upon,  constituted 
his  only  known  weapons ;  the  same  the  world  over :  Europe,  Asia 
Africa  and  America  I 

No  cataclysm  drove  him  from  the  spot,  and  all  those  years 
that  the  ever  increasing  beds  of  sand,  gravel  and  boulders 
were  accumulating,  he  dwelt  here,  familiar,  it  is  now  known,  with 
the  mastodon,  and  likewise  with  the  bison,  reindeer,  musk-ox 
and  the  fauna  of  the  present  time  :  and  when  the  last  of  these 
transporting  floods  had  wholly  passed  away  this  primitive  man 
was  America's  sole  occupant,  and  left  upon  the  surface  of  the 
latest  stratum  of  sand  and  pebbles,  that  floods  from  a  once  gla 
ciated  valley  brought  from  the  mountains  beyond,  the  same  rude 
implements  of  stone  that  his  ancestors  had  lost  in  the  underlying 
gravels  beneath  his  feet. 

We  are  to-day  contemporary  with  vast  accumulations  of  allu 
vium  that  are  steadily  increasing  in  our  river  valleys  ;  — why  then 
might  not  palaeolithic  man  as  readily  have  been  contemporary 
with  the  almost  as  gradual  growth  of  these  older  beds  of  gravel  ? 


Haynes.]  132  [January  19, 

I  do  not  presume  to  boldly  assert  that  America's  early  man, 
at  least  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  was  jt?re-glacial ;  but  that  he  ante 
dates  the  Red  Indian,  if  it  be  true  that  the  latter  is  a  recent  comer, 
I  do  confidently  maintain,  backed  as  I  am  by  the  unquestionable 
testimony  of  the  Trenton  gravel. 


THE  ARGILLITE  IMPLEMENTS  FOUND  IN  THE  GRAVELS 
OF  THE  DELAWARE  RIVER,  AT  TRENTON,  N.J.,  COM 
PARED  WITH  THE  PALAEOLITHIC  IMPLEMENTS  OF 
EUROPE. 

BY   HENBY   W.   HAYNES. 

The  first  question  to  be  decided  in  regard  to  the  rude  imple 
ments,  mostly  made  out  of  argillite,  and  alleged  to  have  been 
discovered  in  the  gravels  of  the  Delaware,  is  as  to  their  authen 
ticity.  Were  they  actually  found  where,  and  under  the  circum 
stances  in  which,  they  are  claimed  to  have  been  discovered  ?  Upon 
this  fundamental  point  we  are  not  restricted  to  the  unsupported 
testimony  of  a  single  observer,  whose  prepossessions  may  possibly 
have  misled  him,  or  whose  observations  may  be  objected  to  as 
lacking  in  exactness.  In  addition  to  the  very  extensive  series  of 
these  objects  found  by  Dr.  Abbott,  Professor  Putnam,  Mr.  Carr 
and  Professor  Whitney  all  alike  report  that  they  have  discovered 
precisely  similar  objects  themselves,  in  the  same  localities  and 
under  like  conditions. 

During  the  past  autumn  I  visited  the  region  myself  in  company 
with  the  Rev.  Geo.  Fred.  Wright,  Professor  W.  Boyd  Dawkins, 
and  Mr.  H.  C.  Lewis,  of  the  Penn.  Geol.  Survey,  under  Dr.  Abbott's 
guidance.  Several  implements  were  taken  by  the  others,  either 
from  the  gravel,  or  the  talus  on  the  river  bank,  in  my  presence,  and 
I  found  five  myself.  All  these  objects  were  precisely  similar 
in  appearance,  material  and' method  of  fabrication,  to  those  placed 
by  Dr.  Abbott  in  the  Peabody  Museum  at  Cambridge.  They 
were  all  found  under  exactly  the  same  circumstances,  and  in  like 
situations,  as  were  the  greater  part  of  those  described  by  him  in  the 
two  accounts  of  his  discoveries  published  in  the  Reports  of  the 
Museum  for  the  years  1877  and  1878.  Other  examples,  however, 
were  taken  by  him  from  undisturbed  gravels  at  varying  depths. 


1881.]  133  [Haynes. 

For  my  own  part  I  consider  it  absolutely  and  incontestably 
established  that  these  objects  have  come,  as  alleged,  from  the 
gravel-beds  of  the  Delaware  valley,  and  that  occasionally  only  have 
they  been  found  on  the  surface. 

A  second  question  then  arises  in  regard  to  the  character  of 
the  objects  themselves. 

Do  they  show  incontestable  marks  of  human  workmanship  ? 

This  is  a  problem  to  be  decided  only  by  the  verdict  of  such  per 
sons  as  have  had  large  experience  in  searching  for  and  studying 
pre-historic  stone  implements,  and  who  have  thus  acquired  the  skill 
of  the  expert  in  discriminating  between  the  natural  and  the 
artificial  fracture  of  the  various  kinds  of  stone  out  of  which  the 
early  man  manufactured  his  first  rude  implements.  I  venture  to 
offer  my  own  opinion  upon  this  question  because  I  think  my  op 
portunities  for  this  kind  of  study  have  been  unusually  great.  For 
six  years  I  have  studied  the  stone  age  in  various  countries  of 
Europe,  in  all  of  them  searching  diligently  for  implements,  and  I 
have  handled  stones  artificially  broken  literally  by  the  hundreds 
of  thousands.  I  have  also  carefully  examined  the  celebrated 
collections  of  such  objects  to  be  found  in  the  various  museums 
of  different  countries,  and  I  have  enjoyed  the  personal  acquain. 
tance  and  companionship  of  many  of  the  leading  cultivators  of  pre 
historic  studies.  In  this  way  I  have  participated  in  a  great  deal 
of  inquiry  and  discussion  in  regard  to  the  characteristics  and 
peculiarities  which  such  implements  present.  Applying  the 
experience  thus  acquired,  I  trace  many  striking  resemblances 
between  these  argillite  objects  and  the  palaeolithic  implements 
of  Europe,  made  from  flint  or  quartzite.  It  is  undeniable  that 
the  argillite  implements  are  of  ruder  workmanship,  but  I  think 
this  arises  solely  from  the  circumstance  that  the  material  from 
which  they  are  fabricated  is  much  less  susceptible  of  being  finely 
worked.  Especially  is  the  flint  derived  from  the  chalk,  of  which 
nearly  all  the  European  implements  are  made,  capable  of  being 
chipped  into  much  more  perfect  and  symmetrical  shapes  than 
is  the  coarse-grained  variety  of  clay-stone,  from  which  the  New 
Jersey  implements  are  fashioned.  But  the  types  of  the  two 
classes  of  implements  are  remarkably  similar.  To  whatever 
uses  and  purposes  the  European  implements  were  capable  of 


Haynes.]  134  [January  10. 

being  applied  I  regard  these  Delaware  objects  as  being  equally 
well  adapted.  The  same  general  description  applies  to  both 
classes  of  implements  alike.  The  characteristic  European  pal 
aeolithic  implement  is  commonly  known  to  archaeologists  there 
by  the  name  of  the  "  axe  of  the  type  of  St.  Acheul."  This  des 
ignation  is  derived  from  the  old  Abbey  of  this  name,  close  to 
Amiens,  in  the  valley  of  the  Somme,  in  Northern  France,  where 
they  were  first  discovered  by  Boucher  do  Perthes  in  1841,  and 
where  they  have  since  been  found  in  greater  numbers  than  in 
any  other  locality.  This  "  axe  of  the  type  of  St.  Acheul "  may 
be  described  as  being  usually  of  large  size,  longer  than  it  is  wide, 
thick  in  the  middle  and  sharpened  at  the  edges.  One  end  is 
more  or  less  pointed,  and  the  other,  which  was  doubtless  intended 
to  be  held  in  the  hand,  is  thick  and  rounded.  Their  most  distin 
guishing  characteristic  is  that  both  sides,  or  faces,  are  chipped  into 
a  shape  more  or  less  convex  and  symmetrical.  An  implement  of 
this  description,  it  will  be  seen  at  a  glance,  is  entirely  unlike  the 
ordinary  Indian  axe,  or  tomahawk,  made  of  polished  stone,  and 
very  generally  provided  with  a  groove  around  the  middle,  intend 
ed  to  hold  a  handle  made  of  twisted  wythes.  Accompanying  these 
St.  Acheul  axes  there  are  also  found  in  Europe  smaller  objects, 
such  as  spear-heads,  and  knives  fashioned  out  of  flakes  detached 
from  blocks  of  flint.  All  such  flakes  bear  a  peculiar  mark,  called 
the  "bulb  of  percussion,"  which  proves  them  to  be  of  man's 
fabrication,  as  it  is  never  found  upon  chance-broken  splinters 
of  flint.  It  indicates  the  spot  where  an  intentionally  directed 
blow  was  struck  upon  the  nucleus  from  which  the  flake  was 
detached.  Similar  flakes  of  argillite  are  also  found  in  New 
Jersey  accompanying  the  larger  objects  made  from  that  material, 
which  proves  that  such  implements  were  manufactured  on  or  near 
the  spot  where  the  flakes  occur ;  but  the  number  of  such  flakes 
that  has  hitherto  been  found  is  quite  limited. 

It  would  be  incorrect,  however,  to  suppose  that  the  European 
archaeologists  discriminate  between  the  palaeolithic  implements 
(the  oldest  objects  of  human  workmanship  thus  far  discovered,  and 
which  all  present  the  type  that  I  have  described)  and  those  that 
belong  to  the  later  neolithic  period,  or  the  age  of  "Polished 
Stone"  (to  which  is  to  be  referred  the  common  Indian  axe  or 


1881.]  135  [Haynes. 

tomahawk  of  North  America),  merely  by  their  shape  and  mode 
of  fabrication.  The  term  palaeolithic  is  primarily  restricted  in 
meaning  to  such  objects  as  1  have  described,  when  met  with  under 
peculiar  geological  conditions ;  that  is  to  say,  when  found  embed 
ded  in  the  gravels  which  have  been  deposited  by  certain  rivers 
during  the  period  known  to  the  geologists  as  the  quaternary  or 
pleistocene  period.  At  that  time  their  volume  of  water  was  much 
greater  than  it  now  is,  which  was  caused  by  the  melting  of  the  great 
ice-cap  that  once  covered  the  northern  portion  of  both  continents, 
accompanied  by  a  climate  much  more  humid  than  we  have  at 
present.  Such  accumulations  of  gravel  are  often  of  very  great 
thickness,  and  embedded  in  them,  side  by  side  with  th^e  stone  im 
plements  above  described,  are  found  the  fossil  bones  of  extinct 
species  of  animals,  such  as  the  mammoth,  the  rhinoceros  tichor- 
rhinus,  and  numerous  others,  or  of  animals  like  the  reindeer,  or  the 
musk-sheep,  which  have  since  migrated  to  the  colder  regions  of  the 
north,  or  which  are  now  restricted  to  the  higher  Alpine  slopes. 

This  leads  us  to  the  third  question  to  be  considered,  viz ,  the 
localities  and  geological  conditions,  under  which  these  New  Jersey 
implements  have  been  discovered.  Though  the  objects  themselves 
may  present  the  right  type,  shape,  and  general  appearance,  we  must 
look  carefully  at  the  conditions  under  which  they  have  been  discov 
ered  before  we  can  pronounce  judgment  as  to  whether  they  are  to 
be  regarded  as  "  palaeolithic  implements,"  or  not.  Of  course 
when  found  in  gravel  beds,  accompanied  by  fossil  animal  bones, 
no  such  question  can  be  raised.  But  since  the  pleistocene  period 
these  gravel  beds  have  been  subjected  to  a  constant  process  of 
denudation  and  removal  by  the  action  of  the  rain  and  other  nat 
ural  causes,  with  the  result  that  in  some  localities  they  have  either 
partially  or  entirely  disappeared.  The  same  causes  that  would 
sweep  away  the  finer  and  lighter  particles  would  not  be  power 
ful  enough  to  affect  the  heavy  palaeolithic  implements,  which 
would  accordingly  be  left  behind.  Consequently  we  sometimes 
find  such  implements  upon  the  surface  in  localities  where 
the  pleistocene  gravels  are  no  longer  to  be  seen.  Such  is  the 
case,  for  example,  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile,  where  there  are  now 
no  longer  pleistocene  deposits,  though  these  occur  in  the  adjacent 
Desert  of  the  Sahara.  Yet  in  the  bottoms  of  the  dry  ravines  or 


Haynes  ]  136  [January  19, 

wadys,  which  pierce  the  hills  that  bound  the  valley  of  the  Nile, 
1  have  found  numerous  specimens  of  flint  axes  of  the  type  of  St. 
Acheul,  which  have  been  adjudged  to  be  true  palaeolithic  imple 
ments  by  some  of  the  most  eminent  cultivators  of  prehistoric 
science. 

Each  particular  discovery  accordingly  must  be  tested  by  the 
peculiar  conditions  of  locality  and  circumstances  under  which  it 
has  occurred. 

Now  it  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  find  palaeolithic  imple 
ments  in  Europe  in  several  localities,  both  where  they  have  been 
accompanied  by  the  characteristic  fossil  bones,  and  where  these 
have  been  wanting.  I  have  thus  had  the  opportunity  of  making 
myself  familiar  with  the  general  character  of  such  localities  and 
the  appearance  of  the  country  in  the  vicinity,  together  with 
the  nature  and  quality  of  the  gravels  in  which  the  implements  are 
found.  I  have  especially  studied  the  gravel  beds  of  the  valley  of 
the  Seine,  in  the  vicinity  of  Paris,  and  of  the  Tiber,  near  Rome,  for 
several  successive  years,  and  in  a  very  great  number  of  visits,  and 
from  both  these  localities  I  have  obtained  fossil  bones  of  the 
mammoth,  the  rhinoceros,  the  hippopotamus,  the  bos  antiquus, 
the  great  extinct  elk,  the  horse,  the  reindeer,  etc.  Accompanying 
these  fossil  bones  were  found  the  characteristic  palaeolithic  imple 
ments.  I  have  also  visited  the  famous  locality  of  St.  Acheul, 
and  the  well-known  gravel-pits  near  Salisbury,  England,  in  both 
of  which  spots  have  occurred  numerous  finds  of  palaeolithic  imple 
ments,  accompanied  by  similar  fossil  bones.  In  another  locality, 
near  Dinan,  in  Normandy,  where  the  pleistocene  deposits  no 
longer  exist,  as  is  also  the  case  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  I  have 
found  a  large  quantity  of  palaeolithic  implements  made  out  of 
quartzite.  From  these  various  experiences  I  feel  myself  warranted 
in  stating  that  the  general  appearance  of  the  country,  and  the 
character  of  the  gravels,  at  Trenton,  N.  J.,  present  a  most  striking 
resemblance  to  what  I  have  seen  in  the  various  localities  in  the 
Old  World  to  which  I  have  referred.  There  is  the  same  rudely 
stratified  mingling  of  coarse  materials  marked  by  a  similar 
absence  of  clay.  It  is  true  that  in  the  gravels  of  New  Jersey  thus 
far  not  many  fossil  bones  have  been  discovered,  but  only  a  few  of 
the  mammoth,  the  bison,  the  reindeer  and  the  walrus,  some  of 


1881.]  137  [Wright. 

which,  like  the  animals  of  Europe  under  similar  circumstances, 
have  since  migrated  to  the  colder  regions  of  the  north.  But 
the  fact  remains  that  fossil  animal  bones  have  actually  been 
discovered  in  these  gravels,  and  when  we  call  to  mind  to  what 
a  limited  extent  they  have  as  yet  been  examined  we  may  reason 
ably  expect  more  to  be  found  hereafter. 

I  limit  myself  to  a  general  statement  like  this  in  regard  to 
the  marked  resemblance  of  the  locality,  and  the  precisely  similar 
character  of  the  gravels  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  to  what  I  have 
seen  in  many  localities  in  Europe,  which  have  yielded  true 
palaeolithic  implements,  and  I  leave  in  more  competent  hands  the 
discussion  and  determination  of  the  true  geological  character  of 
the  gravels  of  the  Delaware  valley. 

Speaking  then  merely  from  an  archaeological  stand-point,  I  do 
not  hesitate  to  declare  my  firm  conviction  that  the  rude  argillite 
objects  found  in  the  gravels  of  the  Delaware  river,  at  Trenton, 
New  Jersey,  are  true  palaeolithic  implements. 


AN  ATTEMPT   TO    ESTIMATE  THE  AGE    OF  THE   PALAEO 
LITHIC-BEARING    GRAVELS  IN  TRENTON,  N.  J. 

BY   G.    FREDERICK   WEIGHT. 

Four  years  ago  Professor  Shaler  concluded  his  brief  and. 
cautious  report  upon  the  gravel  beds  which  form  the  subject  of 
the  present  paper,  by  expressing  the  "  hope  hereafter  to  furnish  a 
detailed  account  of  the  geology  of  these  gravel  beds,  and  to 
support  these  preliminary  statements  by  evidence  in  the  way  of 
sections  and  maps."  (Report  of  Peabody  Museum  for  1876,  Vol. 
II.  p.  47.)  It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  the  pressure  of  other 
duties  prevented  him  from  carrying  out  his  designs.  Meanwhile, 
facts  bearing  upon  the  solution  of  this  interesting  problem  have 
been  rapidly  accumulating,  until  now  we  apparently  see  the 
beginning  of  the  end. 

Briefly  stated,  the  progress  of  discovery  has  been  this :  In  the 
Annual  Report  of  Professors  Cook  and  Smock,  State  Geologists 
of  New  Jersey  for  1877,  the  southern  limit  of  the  ice  field 
during  the  glacial  age  was  indicated.  (See  pp.  9-19.)  The 


Wright.]  138  [January  19, 

boundary  of  this  field  crosses  the  state  by  a  curve  convex  to  the 
south  from  PC- rth  Amboy  to  Belvidere  on  the  Delaware  River, 
about  sixty  miles  above  Trenton.  As  bearing  in  a  general  way 
upon  the  ([iiestion  in  hand,  we  should  mention  the  conclusions  of 
Col.  Charles  Whittlesey  in  1866,  and  of  Prof.  N.  H.  Wiiichell,  T. 
C.  Chamberlain,  and  R.  D.  Irving,  a  few  years  later,  concerning 
the  terminal  moraine  in  Wisconsin  and  other  western  states. 
The  investigations  of  Professor  Hilgard  touching  the  bluff  depos 
its  in  the  lower  Mississippi  valley,  and  of  Col.  D.  K.  Warren  upon 
those  of  the  upper  portion  of  this  valley,  are  also  of  great  signifi 
cance  in  connection  with  this  question.  Nor  should  we  fail  to 
mention  the  extremely  valuable  papers  of  Professor  J.  D.  Dana 
upon  the  condition  of  southern  New  England  during  the  melting 
of  the  great  glacier.  (See  Am.  Journ.  Science  for  1875,  Nos.  57, 
58,  59,  and  60.)  My  own  study  of  the  kames  and  moraines  of 
New  England,  the  results  of  which  are  published  in  the  Proceed 
ings  of  this  Society,  and  that  of  Mr.  Warren  Upham  (see  New 
Hampshire  Geological  Report,  Vol.  III.)?  and  of  Professor  George 
H.  Stone  of  Maine,  serve  to  connect  the  operation  of  a  wide 
spread  cause  with  the  particular  effects  produced  in  the  Delaware 
valley.  It  is  also  proper  to  repeat  that  the  first  announcement  in 
1877  of  the  line  of  the  terminal  moraines  across  southern  New 
England  was  made  in  a  publication  of  this  Society,  in  a  commu 
nication  to  the  writer  by  Mr.  Clarence  King.  (See  Proceedings, 
Vol.  XIX.  pp.  50-63.) 

A  second  step  in  advance  was  made  by  the  New  Jersey  geolo 
gists  (see  Report  for  1878,  p.  22  ;  Clay  Report  for  1878,  p.  17) 
in  recognizing  a  distinction  between  the  implement-bearing  grav 
els  of  Trenton  and  the  general  deposit  of  yellow  gravel  which 
spreads  over  the  southern  part  of  the  state.  But  the  credit  of 
accurately  describing  the  peculiar  character  and  limits  of  these 
Trenton  gravels  must  be  given  to  Professor  H.  C.  Lewis,  of  Phil 
adelphia.  (See  Proc.  Min.  and  Geol.  Section  Acad.  Nat.  Sci., 
Phila.,  for  Nov.  1878  and  Nov.  1879.) 

A  third  step  of  great  importance  was  also  made  by  Professor 
Lewis  in  pointing  out  the  relations  of  the  Philadelphia  brick  clay 
to  the  other  superficial  formations  of  the  Delaware  valley. 

Having  recently  spent  two  weeks  with  Professor  Lewis  in  going 


1881.]  139  [Wright. 

over  this  ground  and  in  extending  investigations  to  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Delaware,  I  will  now  endeavor  to  put  into  intelligible 
shape  the  facts,  both  new  and  old,  which  bear  upon  the  inter 
esting  question  announced  as  the  subject  of  this  paper. 

The  city  of  Trenton  is  built  upon  a  horse-shoe  shaped  gravel 
deposit  which  is  about  three  miles  in  diameter,  extending  back 
about  that  distance  to  the  east  from  the  present  river.  This 
deposit  is  somewhat  lower  along  its  inland  boundary  than  along 
the  river.  The  prongs  of  this  horse-shoe  rest,  one  at  Trenton, 
and  the  other  about  two  miles  below,  just  this  side  the  house 
of  Dr.  Abbott. 

The  characteristics  of  this  gravel  are  thus  accurately  described 
by  Professor  Shaler : 

<c  The  general  structure  of  this  mass  is  neither  that  of  ordinary  boulder 
clay  nor  of  stratified  gravels,  such  as  are  formed  by  the  complete  rearrange 
ment  by  water  of  the  elements  of  simple  drift  deposits.  It  is  made  up  of 
boulders,  pebbles,  and  sand,  varying  in  size  from  masses  containing  one 
hundred  cubic  feet  or  more  to  the  finest  sand  of  the  ordinary  sea  beaches. 
There  is  little  trace  of  true  clay  in  the  deposit.  There  is  rarely  enough  to 
give  the  least  trace  of  cementation  to  the  masses.  The  various  elements 
are  rather  confusedly  arranged ;  the  large  boulders  not  being  grouped  on 
any  particular  level,  and  their  major  axes  not  always  distinctly  coinciding 
with  the  horizon.  All  the  pebbles  and  boulders,  so  far  as  observed,  are 
smooth  and  water-worn ;  a  careful  search  having  failed  to  show  evidence  of 
distinct  glacial  scratching  or  polishing  on  their  surfaces.  The  type  of 
pebble  is  the  sub-ovate  or  discoidal,  and  though  many  depart  from  this 
form,  yet  nearly  all  observed  by  me  had  been  worn  so  as  to  show  that  their 
shape  had  been  determined  by  running  water.  The  materials  comprising 
the  deposit  are  very  varied,  but  all  I  observed  could  apparently  with  reason 
be  supposed  to  have  come  from  the  extensive  valley  of  the  river  near  which 
they  lie,  except,  perhaps,  the  fragments  of  some  rather  rare  hypogene  rocks." 

It  is  now  settled  beyond  controversy  that  the  rocks  from  which 
these  beds  were  derived  are  all  in  place  in  the  upper  Delaware 
valley.  (See  N".  J.  Rep.,  1877,  p.  21 ;  Lewis  on  Trenton  Gravel, 
p.  5.) 

The  distinction  between  the  river  gravel  and  that  which 
overlies  the  larger  part  of  southern  New  Jersey  is  marked  in 
several  ways.  The  Trenton  gravel  is  much  coarser  than  the 


Wright.]  140  [January  19, 

general  deposit,  it  is  also  largely  composed  of  fresher  looking  and 
softer  pebbles,  showing  that  it  has  been  subject  to  much  less 
abrasion  than  the  other,  and  that  it  is  of  more  recent  age ;  it  is 
also  limited  to  the  river  valley,  and  finally  is  not  overlaid  by  the 
Philadelphia  brick  clay  which,  so  far  as  it  extends,  rests  uncon- 
formably  upon  the  general  deposit  of  gravel.  The  general  deposit 
of  gravel  in  this  region  is  composed  almost  exclusively  of  small, 
well  rounded  pebbles  of  quartz  and  of  hard  limestone  which  "  are 
not  fresh  looking,  but  are  eaten  and  weather-worn  by  age." 

The  elevation  of  this  implement-bearing  gravel  at  Trenton  is 
not  far  from  forty  feet  above  the  present  high  water  limit ;  and 
Trenton  is  now  at  the  head  of  tide-water.  These  gravels  are 
continuous  as  a  terrace  all  along  up  the  river.  As  one  ascends  the 
river,  however,  their  height  (at  least  below  the  Water  Gap)  is 
reduced  to  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  above  the  present  flood  plain. 

But  most  significant  of  all  the  facts  indicated  are  the  character 
and  position  of  the  Philadelphia  brick  clay.  This  also  is  confined 
to  the  river  valley  and  its  tributaries,  and  rests  unconformably 
upon  the  older  gravel  formations,  rising  to  a  height  of  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  feet  above  the  river,  and  there  ceasing.  This 
elevation  relative  to  the  river  is  maintained  with  tolerable  con 
stancy  as  far  up  as  Easton,  where  the  bed  of  the  river  itself 
is  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  feet  above  tide  level.  Finally, 
this  Philadelphia  brick  clay  contains  numerous  boulders  of 
considerable  size,  derived  from  the  ledges  of  Medina  sandstone 
and  other  rocks  above.  This  marks  it  as  a  deposit  of  the  glacial 
flood  sometime  during  the  declining  centuries  of  the  great  ice 
period. 

The  succession  of  events  would  seem  to  be  as  follows  :  During 
the  early  part  of  the  glacial  period  the  ice  accumulated  -in  the 
upper  portion  of  the  valley  of  the  Delaware  to  a  depth  of  many 
hundred  feet.  Two  and  one  half  miles  north  of  the  Delaware  at 
Martin's  Creek,  Professor  Lewis  and  myself  saw,  in  going  south,  the 
last  distinct  evidences  of  direct  glacial  action  at  a  height  of  six 
hundred  and  forty  feet  above  the  river  and  eight  hundred  and 
forty  feet  above  the  sea.  Penobscot  Knob,  on  the  water-shed 
between  the  Susquehanna  and  the  Lehigh  east  of  Wilkesbarre, 
and  only  a  few  miles  north  of  the  southern  limit  of  glaciation, 


1881.]  141  Wright. 

itself  bears  every  mark  of  glaciation.  This  is  two  thousand  one 
hundred  feet  above  the  sea  and  one  thousand  six  hundred  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  Lehigh  at  Mauch  Chunk,  and  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  Delaware  at  the  Water 
Gap.  The  area  in  the  valley  of  the  Delaware  covered  by  the  ice 
is  not  far  from  six  thousand  square  miles.  It  is  not  improbable 
that  the  average  depth  of  the  ice  accumulated  over  the  region 
was  one  thousand  five  hundred  feet,  or  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  making 
the  total  accumulation  of  ice  not  far  from  fifteen  hundred  cubic 
miles,  with  its  southern  border  sixty  miles  above  Trenton.  All 
this  as  it  melted  must  find  its  outlet  to  the  sea  through  the 
Delaware  River.  It  is  evident  at  a  glance  that  during  the  decline 
of  the  glacial  period,  when  the  process  of  melting  was  proceeding 
with  greatest  rapidity,  the  floods  in  the  valley  below  must  have 
been  upon  a  scale  of  surprising  magnitude. 

And  yet  it  is  impossible  that  these  glacial  floods  in  the  Dela 
ware  should  have  been  so  enormous  as  to  have  filled  the  valley 
below  Trenton  to  the  height  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  for 
this  valley  is  no  where  less  than  five  miles  in  width  and  constantly 
enlarges  towards  the  sea.  If  the  water  at  Trenton  were  raised 
one  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  the  slope  would  be  about  two  feet  per 
mile  to  the  bay.  Now  a  current  of  five  miles  per  hour,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  deep  and  one  mile  wide  would  discharge  a 
cubic  mile  of  water  every  eight  hours  or  three  cubic  miles  per 
day.  (The  mean  rate  of  the  Ohio  River,  with  an  average  descent 
of  five  inches  to  the  mile,  is  three  miles  per  hour  —  that  of  the 
Mississippi  very  nearly  the  same.)  To  supply  such  a  volume  of 
water  as  this,  the  whole  accumulation  of  ice  in  the  upper  Dela 
ware  would  suffice  for  only  five  hundred  days,  or  for  about  sixteen 
months.  And  to  furnish  this  amount  of  water  there  would  need 
to  be,  during  such  floods,  a  daily  accumulation  by  rains  and  the 
melting  ice  over  the  whole  upper  valley  of  the  Delaware  of  about 
three  feet  of  water,  which  of  course  is  incredible,  even  if  we 
suppose  the  floods  confined  to  a  single  month  of  each  successive 
year.  Hence,  without  doubt,  we  may  conclude  that  the  deposi 
tion  of  the  boulder-bearing  brick  clay  in  the  Delaware  valley 
below  Trenton  implies  a  depression  of  that  region  to  the  extent 
of  one  hundred  or  more  feet. 


Wright.]  142  [January  19, 

Doubtless  the  region  north  of  Trenton  shared  in  this  depres 
sion,  but,  being  above  tide-water,  the  effects  would  not  be  equally 
evident.  The  valley  above  Trenton  is  narrow.  At  Lambertville 
about  twelve  miles  up  the  stream,  a  trap  dike  contracts  the  valley 
to  a  width  of  not  more  than  one  quarter  of  a  mile.  Above  this 
point  the  supposition  of  floods  sufficient  to  deposit  the  boulder- 
bearing  clay  is,  perhaps,  not  incredible.  For  though  the  descent 
in  the  stream  is  now  about  four  feet  to  the  mile  from  the  Dela 
ware  Water  Gap  down  to  tide  level  (about  eighty  miles),  it  was 
probably  less  during  the  Champlain  epoch.  For  the  depression 
of  that  period  proceeded  at  increased  rate  northward.  In 
Montreal  it  was  five  hundred  feet ;  in  Vermont,  three  hundred 
feet;  and  how  much  more  or  less  in  the  vicinity  of  Lake  Erie 
we  cannot  tell,  though  the  phenomena  of  the  lake  ridges  would 
indicate  that  it  was  considerable,  perhaps  three  hundred  or  four 
hundred  feet.  A  depression  gradually  increasing  north-westward 
would  greatly  dimmish  the  velocity  of  the  torrent  of  the  Cham- 
plain  epoch  and  the  narrow  places  in  the  valley  would  greatly 
retard  it.  Professor  Dana  has  shown  that  in  the  lower  part 
of  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut  River  the  floods  rose  during  the 
Champlain  epoch  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred 
feet  above  the  present  high  water  mark.  The  Connecticut  River 
valley  below  Middletown  is  contracted  by  trap  dikes  much  as  the 
Delaware  is  at  Lambertville.  But  the  drainage  basin  of  the 
Connecticut  is  three  times  as  extensive  as  that  of  the  Delaware 
(being  twenty  thousand  square  miles).  This,  however,  is  partly 
offset  by  the  branch  currents  which,  as  Professor  Dana  shows,  set 
off  from  the  Connecticut  at  various  places  above  Middletown. 

At  any  rate  in  the  Delaware  valley  we  find  boulder-bearing 
clay  rising  to  a  height  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  the, 
present  high  water  level.  In  the  Lehigh  valley,  at  Bethlehem,  a 
few  miles  above  its  junction  with  the  Delaware,  and  several  miles 
south  of  the  limit  of  the  ice  field,  Professor  Lewis  and  I  found  this 
boulder-bearing  clay  containing  scratched  pebbles  and  lying 
unconformably  upon  thick  deposits  of  coarse  stratified  gravel  at 
a  height  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  above  the  river.  Farther 
up  the  Lehigh  valley  also,  near  Weissport,  we  ascertained  the 
limit  of  ice-carried  boulders  to  be  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet 
above  the  river. 


1881.]  143  [Wright. 

We  are  probably  safe  in  assuming  that  these  floods,  depositing 
clay  and  boulders  at  the  height  above  mentioned,  mark  both  the 
period  of  greatest  depression  during  the  Champlain  epoch  and 
the  period  when  the  ice  was  most  rapidly  melting  away.  Of 
course  the  deposition  of  what  Professor  Lewis  styles  "  red  gravel " 
and  the  high  gravels  at  Bethlehem  occurred  earlier,  since  the  clay 
overlies  them.  These  gravels  I  should  assign  to  the  early  stages 
of  the  Champlain  epoch. 

It  is  evident  that  the  deposition,  both  of  this  red  gravel  and 
the  boulder-bearing  clay  is  separated  from  that  of  the  implement- 
bearing  gravel  at  Trenton  by  a  period  of  vast  physical  changes, 

if  not  Of  vast  time.  BANCROFT  UBRARY 

Considering,  now,  this  Trenton  gravel,  we  find  it  to  be 
limited  at  the  head  of  tide  water  to  a  level  of  about  forty  feet, 
and  diminishing  in  height  relatively  to  the  river  both  as  one 
ascends  and  as  one  descends  the  channel,  until  at  Yardleyville,  a 
few  miles  above  Trenton,  it  merges  into  the  terrace  which  main 
tains  a  pretty  uniform  height  of  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  above  the 
river  all  the  way  to  the  Water  Gap.  Above  the  Water  Gap  the 
gravel  terraces  rise  to  a  much  greater  height.  At  Stroudsburgh 
a  second  terrace  stands  seventy-five  feet  above  the  first  terrace 
which  is  about  fifteen  feet  above  Broadhead  Creek.  But  this 
upper  terrace  is  kame-like  in  its  structure,  and  hence  would  be 
explained  in  part  by  the  lingering  presence  of  the  glacier  itself. 

The  descent  of  the  river  valley  from  Belvidere,  where  the  ice 
sheet  terminated,  to  Trenton  is  two  hundred  and  thirty-two  feet, 
or  at  the  rate  of  nearly  four  feet  per  mile,  as  the  river  runs. 

The  transportation  of  gravel  by  a  river  is  dependent  both  upon 
the  amount  of  material  accessible  to  the  running  stream  and  upon 
the  rapidity  of  the  current.  Toward  the  close  of  the  glacial 
period  the  pebbles  accessible  to  the  stream  were  superabundant, 
having  been  deposited  in  excessive  amount  by  the  melting  of-  the 
glacier  in  the  lower  latitudes.  The  water-worn  pebbles  at  Tren 
ton  were  probably  largely  derived  from  this  source.  Even  a 
glacial  torrent  may  have  more  loose  material  than  it  can  manage, 
and  so  may  silt  up  its  bed  with  gravel.  Hence  it  is  not  necessary 
to  suppose  the  river  at  this  point  to  have  been  of  sufficient 
volume  to  fill  the  whole  valley  with  water  to  the  height  of  the 


Wright.]  144  [January  19, 

terrace,  fifteen  or  twenty  feet.  The  river  may  have  flowed  upon 
the  surface  of  the  gravel  in  a  shallower  current  than  the  terrace 
would  seem  to  imply. 

But  when  the  current,  passing  down  this  declivity  of  four  feet 
to  the  mile,  reached  the  level  of  the  sea  at  Trenton,  its  transport 
ing  power  would  be  greatly  diminished  and  thus  we  should  have 
an  accumulation  of  gravel  at  the  head  of  tide  water,  without 
bringing  into  the  problem  the  supposition  of  any  very  extraor 
dinary  increase  in  the  volume  of  the  river.  The  loss  of  trans 
porting  power  upon  diminishing  the  rapidity  of  a  current  of 
water  is  enormous.  The  transporting  capacity  of  a  stream  of 
water  is  estimated  to  vary  as  the  sixth  power  of  the  velocity,  i.e., 
if  a  current  is  checked  so  that  it  moves  at  only  half  its  former 
rate,  its  transporting  capacity  is  diminished  to  one  sixty-fourth. 
It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  sudden  enlargement  of  the  valley  just 
above  Trenton,  as  well  as  the  occurrence  there  of  tide  water, 
would  diminish  the  rapidity  of  the  river  and  hence  cause  an 
extraordinary  deposition  of  gravel  when  it  was  abundant  above. 

The  most  likely  time  for  this  deposition  to  have  occurred  was 
near  the  very  close  of  the  glacial  period,  when  the  lower  moraines 
were  fresh  and  when  ice  fields  still  lingered  in  the  southern 
valleys  of  the  Catskills.  The  process  of  deposition  must  have 
been  so  rapid  that  it  could  not  have  been  much  subsequent  to  the 
withdrawal  of  the  continental  glacier  north  of  the  Catskills.  The 
time  required  for  the  river  under  present  conditions  to  erode  the 
channel  it  now  occupies  was  of  much  greater  duration. 

I  hope  another  season  to  devote  a  month  or  two  to  further 
investigations  and  will  now  but  briefly  indicate  what  seems  very 
probable  and  what  is  still  in  doubt. 

1.  It  seems  altogether  probable  that  the  Philadelphia  brick 
clay  was  deposited  during  the  height  of  the  Champlain  epocli 
when  the   Delaware  valley  was   considerably  depressed   below 
its  present  level. 

2.  Towards  the   close  of    that  period  when  the    land   had 
resumed  nearly  its  present  level  and  the  ice  had  nearly  all  disajv 
peared  south  of  the  Catskills,  the  still  swollen  stream  brought 
down   the   superabundant  loose   material  from   the  kames  and 
moraines  and  deposited  it  in  the  valley  below.     The  material  was 


1881-1  145  [Wright. 

so  abundant  that  doubtless  the  whole  channel  was  silted  up  so 
that  the  bed  of  the  river  was  considerably  above  that  it  now 
occupies.  At  Trenton  it  flowed  over  and  through  an  extensive 
delta  of  coarse  gravel  forty  feet  above  its  present  level ;  and 
above  Trenton,  over  an  accumulation  of  gravel  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  feet  above  the  present  high  water  mark.  This  period  was 
marked  by  the  presence  of  the  mastodon  and  other  extinct 
animals  (the  skeleton  of  a  mastodon  having  been  found  in  the 
Trenton  gravels)  and  by  the  advent  of  palaeolithic  man  to  the 
neighborhood  of  Trenton. 

3.  During  the  Terrace  epoch  the  river  worked  its  way  down 
through  the  delta  of  gravel  at  Trenton,  and  has  since  eroded  its 
present  channel  which   is    about   two   miles  wide  at  that  point. 
Higher  up,  where   the  current   is    swift,  the   lateral   erosion    in 
recent  times  has  been  small. 

4.  To    determine    approximately    the    date    of    the   earliest 
evidence   of  man's  appearance  at  Trenton  we  have  as  data,  (1) 
The  amount  of  erosion  in  the  palaeolithic  gravels  at  Trenton. 
(2)     The  general  evidence  from  other  sources  bearing  upon  the 
date  of  the  close  of  the  Champlain  epoch  in  this  country.     As 
bearing  upon  this,  several  terrestrial  time-measures  are  accessible, 
the  most  important  of  which   are  the  recession  of  various  water 
falls,  like    those    of    Niagara   and    St.    Anthony,    which   occupy 
post-glacial  beds ;   and  the   extent  to  which  sediment  and  peat 
have  accumulated  in  post-glacial  lakes  and  kettle  holes.     It  will 
be  much  safer  to  draw   conclusions  from  such  tangible  data  as 
these,  than  from   the  distant  regions  of  astronomy,  or  from  the 
uncertain  rate  at  which  the  evolution  of  plants  and  animals  has 
proceeded,  or  the  development  of  man  has  progressed. 

Mr.  Lucien  Carr  said  that  in  September  1878,  he  had  visited 
Trenton  in  company  with  Professor  Whitney  of  Cambridge,  and 
that  together  they  had  examined  the  implement-bearing  gravel 
bed.  During  the  investigation  it  was  his  good  fortune  to  find  one 
specimen  in  place,  under  such  circumstances  that  it  must  have 
been  deposited  at  the  time  the  containing  bed  was  laid  down.  It 
was  in  the  ravine  which  cuts  through  the  bluff  near  Dr.  Abbott's 
house,  in  a  fresh  exposure  made  by  a  recent  heavy  storm,  and 

PROCEEDINGS     B.    S.    N.     H.       VOL.     XXI.  10  NOVEMBER,    1881. 


\V:.,Uworth.]  146  [.January  19, 

was  about  three  feet  deep  in  the  ground  and  one  foot  in  fn>m 
the  perpendicular  face  of  this  newly  exposed  surface.  lie  also 
stated  that,  although  neither  Dr.  Abbott  nor  the  officers  of  the 
Peabody  Museum  had  any  doubt  as  to  the  artificial  character 
of  these  implements,  yet  he  had  recently  submitted  a  series  of 
them  to  leading  archaeologists  in  London,  Paris  and  Copenhagen. 
all  of  whom  unhesitatingly  confirmed  their  decision. 

Dr.  M.  E.  Wadsworth  having  been  requested  by  the  Curator 
of  the  Peabody  Museum  of  Archaeology  to  give  some  account  of 
his  observations  on  the  specimens  in  the  Peabody  Museum  said  to 
have  come  from  the  Trenton  (N.  J.)  gravels,  remarked  as 
follows : — 

Certain  of  these  specimens  were  placed  in  my  hands  in  1876 
for  examination,  their  lithological  character  then  being  unknown. 
They  were  found  by  macroscopic  and  microscopic  examination 
to  have  been  made  from  argillite,  greatly  indurated,  and  breaking 
witli  a  conchoidal  fracture.  The  specimens  were  weathered  to 
a  greater  or  less  extent  and  showed  plainly  that  the  fractures 
must  have  been  made  long  ago.  A  few  small  fractures  of  sec 
ondary  character  occur.  This  secondary  chipping  evidently  took 
place  long  after  the  original  fracturing,  but  also  long  ago,  as  is 
shown  by  the  weathering  of  the  surfaces  of  both  the  primary 
and  secondary  fractures.  The  few  secondary  fractures  are  prob 
ably  natural,  and  could  easily  occur  if  subjected  to  the  action  Dr. 
Abbott  supposes.  The  original  chipping  could  not  have  taken 
place  by  any  known  natural  causes-  .-.cling  upon  rocks,  so  far  as 
the  writer  has  any  knowledge.  Of  course  it  then  brings  n^  to 
the  only  agency  that  could  do  the1  work  :  man.  The  characters 
of  the  specimens,  petrographically,  bore  out  the  statements  made 
to  me  by  Mr.  Putnam,  of  the  conditions  under  which  they  were 
found,  whether  upon  the  surface  or  in  the  gravels.  I  do  not  >ee 
how  it  is  possible  that  such  Correspondence  of  characters  could 
exist  unless  the  specimens  were  found  under  the  conditions 
reported. 

The  lithological  characters  then  show  that  the  specimens  are 
not  natural  forms;  that  being  composed  of  a  slow  weathering 
rock,  they  must  have  been  made  IOIIL:  year-  ago;  that  many  years 


1881-]  147  [Putnam 

later  they  were  subject  to  other  conditions,  probably  natural,  by 
which  part  have  been  modified ;  that  since  then,  they  have  lain 
for  many,  many  years  exposed  to  weathering  agencies;  some 
showing  that  they  have  been  subject  to  this  action  while  lying  on 
or  near  the  surface,  and  others  while  buried  to  some  depth. 

Their  weathering  corresponds  to  that  observed  on  pebbles  of 
similar  composition  in  gravels  elsewhere.  It  is  to  be  remembered 
that  all  the  weathering  has  taken  place  since  the  Abbott  speci 
mens  were  originally  chipped. 

The  term  weathering  as  here  employed  means  the  alteration 
and  decay  that  has  taken  place  on  the  surface  of  the  specimen, 
but  does  not  imply  that  it  has  been  exposed  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground ;  it  may  or  may  not  have  been ;  the  weathering  itself 
shows  with  greater  or  less  clearness  whether  this  occurred  from 
surface  exposure  or  not. 

Part  of  the  specimens  shown  me  bore  evidence  that  they  had 
originally  been  exposed  to  weathering  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground  and  been  covered  since,  but  the  covering  evidently  took 
place  ages  ago,  if  the  weathering  that  they  have  been  subjected 
to  since  is  any  criterion. 

The  term  "argillite,"  as  employed  by  me,  is  used  to  designate 
all  argillaceous  rocks,  in  which  the  argillaceous  material  is  the 
predominant  characteristic;  slate  or  clay-slate,  clay-stone,  etc. 
are  simply  varieties  of  it,  the  term  slate  being  only  rightfully  used 
when  slaty  cleavage  is  developed.  The  argillite  out  of  which 
these  specimens  were  made  has  ho  trace  of  cleavage. 

Mr.  F.  W.  Putnam  said: — It  is  left  for,  me  Mr.  President,  to 
say  a  few  words,  in  conclusion,  on  the  subject  of  Palaeolithic  man 
on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  America,  which  has  been  so  forcibly  pre_ 
sented  by  the  several  speakers  this  evening ;  but  first  I  wish  to  give 
the  reason,  apart  from  my  long  personal  relations  with  Dr.  Abbott, 
that  has  so  closely  identified  the  Pe-ibody  Museum  of  Archaeol 
ogy  with  Dr.  Abbott's  discoveries  in  New  Jersey. 

In  Mr.  Peabody's  letter  of  gift  to  the  gentlemen  he  appointed 
as  Trustees  of  the  Museum  of  American  Archaeology  and  Ethnol 
ogy,  which  he  then  founded,  under  date  of  Oct.  8,  1866,  are  the 
following  words :  "  In  the  event  of  the  discovery  in  America  of 


Putnam.]  1  4^  (.January  lit. 

human  remains  or  implements  of  an  earlier  geological  period  than 
the  present,  especial  attention  l>e  «_riven  to  their  studv,  ami  their 
comparison  with  those  found  in  other  countries."  This  request 
of  Mr.  Peabody  makes  it  incumhent  on  tin1  Trustees  of  the 
Museum  to  do  what  they  can  in  aid  of  such  explorations  as  those 
conducted  by  Dr.  Abbott,  and  on  my  eallin-j,-  the  attention  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  to  the  importance  of  his  investigations,  appro 
priations  were  at  once  granted  to  enable  him  to  continue  his  \vork 
in  connection  with  the  Peabody  Museum.  The  results  of  this 
work  have  been  presented  to-night,  and  they  have  certainly 
shown  that  palaeolithic  man  lived  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of 
America  at  a  time  so  remote  that  the  implements  which  he  made 
were  now  found  buried  in  the  same  glacial  gravel  and  reassorted 
river  drift  which  contained  the  remains  of  the  bison  and  the 
mastodon,  and  under  conditions  corresponding  with  those  under 
which  implements  of  the  same  character  had  been  buried  in  the 
gravels  of  the  river  valleys  of  Europe. 

Dr.  Abbott,  with  proper  scientific  caution,  has  not  mentioned 
the  discovery  of  a  peculiar  human  skull  under  such  reported 
conditions  as  would,  if  true,  show  it  to  be  contemporaneous  with 
the  stone  implements  of  the  gravel.  Still  as  the  skull  was  not 
secured  by  Dr.  Abbott  until  some  time  after  it  was  said  to  have 
been  dug  out  of  the  gravel  several  feet  below  the  surface,  its 
consideration  must  be  deferred  until  furl  her  evidence1  is  obtained 
of  human  bones  in  the  Trenton  gravel. 

As  Dr.  Abbott  has  stated,  in«his  historical  summary  of  the 
discovery  of  the  implements  in  the  gravel,  it  has  been  my  good 
fortune  to  take,  with  my  own  hands,  live  unquestionable  palaeo 
lithic  implements  from  the  gravel  at  various  depths  and  at  differ 
ent  points.  The  relation  of  the  circumstances  under  which  one 
of  these  (now  on  the  table)  was  found  will  be  sufficient  to 
convince  you  that,  the  implement  was  in  the  position  where  it 
was  buried  by  the  four  feet  of  gravel  which  had  been  deposited 
over  it. 

A  short  distance  from  Dr.  Abbott's  house  and  very  near  where 
the  Trenton  gravel  joins  the  marine  gravel,  there  is  a  deep  gully 
throuirh  which  flows  a  small  brook.  In  this  gully  the  gravel  bank 
i>  constantly  washing  away  and  presenting  new  surface  exposures. 


1881.]  149  [Putnam. 

After  a  heavy  rain  in  June,  1879,  I  visited  the  spot  with  Dr. 
Abbott  and  his  son.  Here  I  noticed  a  small  boulder  of  about  six  or 
eight  inches  in  diameter,  projecting  an  inch  or  two  from  the  face 
of  the  bank  about  four  feet  from  the  surface  of  the  soil  above ;  I 
worked  the  stone  from  the  gravel  in  which  it  was  firmly  imbed 
ded  and  drew  it  out.  At  the  back  part  of  the  cavity  thus  made  I- 
noticed  the  pointed  end  of  a  stone  and  after  working  it  up  and 
down  a  few  times,  so  as  to  loosen  the  gravel  about  it,  I  drew  out 
the  implement  now  exhibited. 

On  the  same  day  I  discovered  a  second  specimen  in  place  eight 
feet  from  the  surface,  and  Dr.  Abbott's  son  Richard  found  another 
about  four  feet  from  the  surface.  These  three  specimens  were 
found  within  twenty  or  thirty  feet  of  each  other,  after  a  heavy 
shower  had  made  the  most  favorable  conditions  for  their  discov 
ery.  A  long  continued  search  on  several  following  days,  at 
various  places  along  the  gravel  bluff,  failed  of  success  in  finding 
other  specimens  in  place,  although  several  were  obtained  from  the 
talus.  This  shows  how  seldom  the  implements  are  likely  to  be 
found,  and  it  may  be  from  this  cause  that  some  unsuccessful 
hunters  have  doubted  the  occurrence  of  the  implements  in  the 
gravel.  Certainly  the  evidence  that  has  been^brought  forward 
to-night  will  clear  away  all  doubts  as  to  the  importance  and  reli 
ability  of  Dr.  Abbott's  discoveries  and  investigations,  which  have 
proved  the  former  existence  of  palaeolithic  man  in  the  valley  of 
the  Delaware. 


